The report, released on June 6, is from Canada’s Ecofiscal Commission — a Metcalf grantee. It identifies three kinds of complementary and effective policies that it calls gap-fillers, signal-boosters, and benefit-expanders. The report also presents six detailed recommendations for how governments can develop complementary policies to support carbon pricing.

Clare Demerse, Federal Policy Advisor with Clean Energy Canada — another Metcalf grantee, welcomed the report but challenged its claim that electric vehicle subsidies should be phased out. Demerse argues that offering incentives to Canadians who buy zero-emission cars is, in fact, essential. “No question,” she states, “there are cheaper ways to reduce carbon pollution… But we also need to accelerate our transition to cleaner cars — in the long-term, to increase our success in cutting emissions, and also to take full advantage of our country’s strength in auto innovation and technology, as demand for these vehicles grows around the world.”